Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 13

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

One-Strike Kill Swordmaster Episode 13

Episode 13. A Moment of Realization (1)

Murmur murmur-.

We were only able to reach the outskirts of the city by morning.

Outside the walls of Dungarrd, carriages and travelers waiting to depart for other cities had gathered.

I passed by the noisily chattering adventurers. Then I approached an old man leaning against a carriage.

“I’m looking for a carriage heading to Bertas, the Free City.”

“Bertas?”

The old man chuckled. A foul stench wafted from his yellowed teeth.

“Just grab any carriage here and get on! Nine times out of ten, it’ll be heading to Bertas!”

Ah.

As I mentioned before, I had never once visited Dungarrd, the Dark City at this point in time.

Even if I had wanted to in the game, there was no way to do so.

Because of that, I had been secretly worried about what to do if there were no carriages heading to Bertas, the Free City, but fortunately it seemed like this was peak season for adventurers’ great migration.

Lucky me. If there had been fewer carriage options, I would have had to pay a fortune.

“Hey there.”

Just as I was continuing with such thoughts, the old man in front of me spoke up again.

“If you’re going to Bertas, how about using my carriage? I was just about to head there myself.”

“What’s the price?”

“Let me see. Including your companion, if you give me 2 million shillings… Huh? Hey! Where are you going!”

I passed by the old man without any response.

“A wise choice.”

Just then, Adelia, who had been following alongside me, spoke up.

“It might be different if transportation was scarce. But when nine out of ten carriages are heading to Bertas like now, the price would have been set at 500,000 shillings.”

“….”

“By the way, that person is quite the fool too. If he wanted to overcharge, he should have said there were no carriages going to Bertas.”

Chatter chatter-.

Adelia continued her monologue after that.

Wondering how someone with such a stupid head managed to survive until old age.

Watching her silently, I let out a quiet chuckle in my mind.

‘Adelia.’

Sorry, but I had a different reason for passing by that old man.

* * *

It was while Adelia and I were going around various carriages checking prices.

Tap-.

Right at that moment, someone tapped my shoulder and stopped me.

“Excuse me.”

“…?”

“You… aren’t you ‘that’ gladiator who was active in the Underground Arena a few days ago?”

When I turned around, I saw a man with an impressive smooth bald head and rough beard.

A muscular build that looked more like a warrior than a merchant.

However, the emblem on the man’s chest proved that he was a seasoned merchant.

‘…Oh?’

Upon confirming the emblem, I couldn’t help but be inwardly surprised.

Indeed, that was a badge only given to merchants who had traveled the【Silk-road】more than a hundred times.

That merchant was a veteran among veterans.

‘Wait, could this person be…?’

Just as I was squinting slightly and looking at the merchant’s face.

Right at that moment.

The bald merchant looked at me and burst into hearty laughter.

“Hahaha! Seeing you glare at me like that, you must be that gladiator!”

“…What do you want.”

“Nothing much. What else would a merchant like me want?”

“….”

“I just need someone to safely protect my carriage to the destination.”

In other words, he was looking for escort services for his merchant guild.

“What’s the destination?”

“Bertas, the Free City. How about it. Will you join us?”

Swoosh-.

The man extended his hand for a handshake.

Since there was no reason to refuse, I grasped his hand.

I got a ride on a carriage. And for free, too.

“Here, 500,000 shillings as advance payment. I’ll pay an additional 500,000 shillings when we safely reach our destination.”

Clink-!

“….”

Let me correct that.

I got a ride on a carriage. And I’m getting paid for it too.

* * *

Rattle, clatter-!

The carriage shook.

In the afternoon with the hot sun blazing down, we were passing through wasteland with sparse grass.

The Silk Road, one of the few safe zones in the Uncharted Wilderness.

Six carriages were advancing in formation along that sacred path.

It was a scale that would be more than sufficient to be treated as a large merchant guild in The World of Loel. Accordingly, there were many mercenaries protecting the merchant guild.

Of course, compared to the Ruin Guild, it was an incomparably small size…

‘…But those guys are beyond standard, so let’s leave them out of consideration.’

Anyway.

The mission Adelia and I received wasn’t to escort the merchant guild.

To be precise, it was to escort the guild ‘master’.

It meant we just had to protect that bald, muscular middle-aged man who was looking at me with curious eyes.

Thanks to that, while other mercenaries were marching outside the carriages, we could comfortably sit next to the guild master and travel to our destination.

“Hey there.”

Just then, the bald guild master spoke to me.

“You’re someone specially hired by the Ruin Guild, aren’t you?”

“….”

“Barbarian the Slayer of Men was champion for quite a long time too. The audience was getting tired of it, so I think they hired you to breathe new life into the Underground Arena…”

“….”

“How about it? Am I right?”

The bald guild master was subtly probing me with his tone.

I kept my mouth firmly shut without giving any answer.

When I showed no sign of responding, the bald guild master burst into hearty laughter.

“Haha, playing hard to get, I see.”

“….”

“Chatting wasn’t part of the job description, is that it? Alright. I won’t bother you anymore either.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the merchant guild leader shut his mouth.

Even as the silence continued, he kept glancing over at me.

Swoosh-.

I just ignored him and turned my gaze toward the skill window I had opened earlier.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

【Ritardando True】

Grade: ??

Type: Active Skill, Authority Skill

Cost: None

Cooldown: 12 hours

[Skill Description]

They say time flows equally for everyone and no one can go against it. However, you who have received recognition from the ‘Master of Seconds and Moments’ might be an exception.

The grains of sand in the hourglass become heavy. Arrows flying at high speed drift slowly through the air.

But be careful.

The moment you abuse the eternity that has become an instant, your time will slowly erode. Eventually, you will lose your own identity in endless slowness.

[Usage Effect]

Time slows down.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Authority skill 【Ritardando】.

It was the reward I obtained from clearing the Hidden Dungeon of Dungard.

The effect of this skill was quite simple.

‘…When used, time slows down for a certain period.’

A skill for when bosses entered tricky patterns.

Of course, it didn’t mean the player could freely swim through frozen time.

I just had to watch the slowed trajectory of attacks and plan evasion routes in advance.

It was a kind of thought acceleration ability.

‘Well, that aside…’

Swoosh-.

I examined the skill window in detail once more.

After Adelia finished the memorial service, Ritardando had undergone changes.

First, the modifier “True” had been added to the skill name.

‘…I finally obtained the true form.’

The Elders’ authority possessed tremendous power.

Mere mortals could never handle such power.

That’s why most authority skills underwent downgrades. Their output was limited to provide abilities at a controllable level.

‘But skills with the “True” modifier are exceptions.’

True.

This meant a state where divine authority could be used without any restrictions, exactly as it was.

A modifier that only special beings recognized by the Elders could receive.

‘In the game, it was absolutely impossible to obtain Ritardando’s true form…’

It seemed the “Master of Seconds and Moments” was quite pleased with me.

Was performing the memorial service through Adelia a masterstroke?

‘…No, but why did the cooldown become so long?’

If my memory was correct, Ritardando’s original cooldown was only 3 minutes.

In contrast, the true form’s cooldown was 12 hours.

By simple calculation, the waiting time had increased by 240 times.

Did this mean the skill’s effect had been amplified that much? Was the long waiting time the price for wielding such power?

‘Hmm.’

I didn’t know. The information available to me was still insufficient.

Let me try using the skill once. Then the answer would be revealed.

Ding-!

〔You have used Authority Skill: 【Ritardando True】.〕

The skill activated in sync with my will.

Tick, tick, tick-!

The sound of a second hand echoing from all directions. At the same time, everything in the world began to flow slower and slower.

‘Huh…?’

Wait a minute. Something was strange.

Thuuuuuuuud-.

Thuuuuuuuump-.

The skill effect was far superior to what I had expected.

No, this wasn’t just superior…

‘…This is too excessive.’

Excessive.

To the point where I wondered if time really needed to flow this slowly.

The carriage shook. Accordingly, all the organs in my body began to sway minutely as well.

Along with the slowed flow of time, every single one of those movements began to be ‘perceived.’

‘Ugh!’

I felt motion sick. The queasy feeling made nausea surge up.

My body couldn’t endure the gap between the time flowing in reality and the time I was experiencing.

Thuuuud-.

Crunch-!

‘Ah, damn…’

…To make matters worse, I bit my tongue because the carriage shook.

‘Gaaaah, gaaaaaaah!’

I let out a scream filled with pain. Of course, only in my mind.

This terrible torture continued until Ritardando’s skill duration effect ended.

Ding-!

〔Mental Power ‘Max’ resists fainting.〕

Damn.

It felt like a good 10 hours had passed.

If it hadn’t been for 【Soul of the Sword Master】, wouldn’t I have fainted from the terrible pain?

Well, at least I didn’t gain nothing at all.

Ding-!

〔You have endured terrible pain for a long time.〕

〔Reward: You have acquired passive skill 【Low-Grade Pain Resistance】.〕

…Though I’m not sure if that was a reward commensurate with the pain I experienced.

* * *

“…”

Clatter, clank-!

Adelia stared intently at the man sitting across from her.

He truly was a mysterious being.

No matter how difficult it was to gauge the strength of a high-level opponent, for some reason she couldn’t sense any ‘aura’ from this man at all.

‘Just how vast is the difference that I can’t even measure his abilities…?’

Overwhelming martial prowess that killed powerful enemies in a single strike and passed through ominous trials as if they were nothing.

On top of that, he even had a noble heart that cared for the vengeful spirits trapped in the abandoned factory.

Watching the man’s actions filled her with vague reverence. It wasn’t for nothing that he had been chosen as a ‘seeker of the sword’ to carry on the will of the great Elders.

Adelia felt tremendous gratitude for the fact that she was receiving teachings from such an incredible being.

“Huff!”

“…?”

Cough, cough-!

That was the exact moment.

The man suddenly began breathing heavily out of nowhere.

His eyes widened as he coughed repeatedly, his whole body shaking. His breathing became unstable in an instant.

“A-are you alright…?”

It was such a sudden situation.

Startled, Adelia hurriedly moved to sit beside the man.

Fortunately, the man quickly regained his composure. Taking deep breaths to steady himself, he answered in a deliberately calm voice.

“I’m fine. It’s nothing, so don’t worry about it.”

But Adelia could tell his words were a lie.

‘…Blood?’

The sleeve he had used to cover his cough.

She could see traces of blood staining it.

Adelia looked at the man once more with wavering eyes.

Only then, as if a veil had been lifted, did she begin to see the man clearly.

A frail body with almost no muscle. Pale skin so thin that his veins were visible.

That’s right. The man had looked weak from the moment they first met. So much so that it was incomprehensible how such a body could withstand explosive movements.

‘Could it be…?’

In that moment, various thoughts flashed through Adelia’s mind.

The reason why the man’s body was abnormally frail.

The reason why a seeker of the sword who shunned the secular world had suddenly appeared in this world.

And the reason why, even in the midst of being so busy, he took her along and tried to give her enlightenment.

‘…Could it be that he doesn’t have much time left? Is that why he’s trying to burn himself out until the very end?’

It was a moment when all of the man’s mysterious actions could be explained.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————